The Adventure Begins

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

SHARON FEINSTEIN
ABOARD THE TSF PARKINSON

 

The screen blinked red then the words:--

 

                        "TSF APPLEWHYTE TO SMC"
                             "RED PRIME"
                             "CONTRAVENTION OF PROTOCOL ONE"
                             "LOCATED TSF GAUTIER"

 

--flashed three times.  The screen turned red again, then went black.

 

I looked into blankness expecting something else to happen but nothing did, and Daktoy asked: "You apprehend?"

 

I made a sound cause I could read, but he, checking I didn't catch the bytes, explained.

 

" Protocol One prohibited Terran explorers from interference in the evolution of less developed civilizations."

 

If he had the capacity for humour;"This order was promulgated antecedent Terran's inaugural voyage."

 

When humans entered space, real space, leaving their solar system for other systems, they believed they were the Crown of Creation, likely to buck up naked watchamacallits whom they must be careful not to squash.

 

Humans made their first planetfall on what they dubbed New Earth in 2222. The trip had taken sixty something years, Earth Standard. To get them there in a useful state, they'd used suspended animation, slowing down their life processes.
There was a schedule, each explorer would be awake a portion of time at the beginning or middle of the voyage, but all would be awake for the last part of the journey.

 

Humans had worked out strategies for all possibilities; save one: finding a planet inhabited by a more advanced species. A species which had faster than light travel as a toy, the 'spontaneous' creation of items as a yawn, and who probably observed humans as retarded six year olds on a class trip.

 

I wonder how it'd been to be one of those humans, assuming a planet which didn't have polluting technology matched 'uninhabited by sentient creatures', to face the Tricoyna, so far along on the evolutionary scale, it'd take about a million years to catch up.

 

On Xenos, (the Tricks already named their world, humans added the numeral III to signify it was the 3rd planet from the star) the saps stumbled into a science they didn't have a name for.

 

Then down comes another set of E.T.s.

 

These weren't pale passive sexless Tricoyna who don't believe property was owned or death of an individual important. These were the ZerShaz.

 

As human, I know how my 'species' viewed the ZerShaz; a mixture of all the barbaric tribes that ever existed.

 

When you first see a group of ZeSha they seem clones. Tall large males, bulging out of their leather uniforms, with long black hair, orangy brownish skins, merciless faces and eyes; large inhuman eyes with a pupil shaped like a sunflower seed but black.

 

They speak a guttural sharp language, barked more than spoken and are masters of the 'acid' stare.

 

Those first humans seeing them, made the major mistake of thinking the 'Brutes', (as they called them), were stupid.
Of all their faults, that's one thing the ZerShaz aren't.

 

Humans, assuming the Zerks were going to enslave the Tricks and take their technology; (pretty much what humans were intending) got hostile.

 

Depending on whose history one reads, the other started the war. However, it began and went on with a few commercial breaks until 2496 when the ZerShaz conquered.

 

The ZerShaz conquered all human occupied worlds. From Xenos to Beta Mar, to Shalimar to Seponi. They didn't get to conquer Earth, cause Earth conquered itself, by ionising the atmosphere.

 

Today, somewhere around 2498/99 (using Earth time), I'm aboard a once Terran Space Fleet ship named Parkinson. It is locked into orbit around an Earth covered by a grey shroud. An Earth which poisoned its' atmosphere to prevent invasion. An Earth where human life, if it exists, is underground.

 

I stand before a computer on this small communication ship, which according to the plaque on the wall, was commissioned about ten years ago.

 

I turn from the com screen to the Supreme Ruler of the known Galaxy, Ki-ZerShaz.

 

I assume when the message hit the Parkinson, the ZeSha stationed here contacted him. He'd left me sleeping on the Odin Path, flew here, then invited me to join.  

 

I don't really get the drift of the message but check that after three hundred or so years of space travel humans had finally found a population more primitive than they.

 

"Daktoy..." I begin.

 

"Hmmm?"

 

"ZeSha don't have that kind of Protocol do they?" I ask.

 

"Obviously not."

 

That's one thing you got to love about the ZerShaz. They aren't ambiguous nor hypocrites. It can never be in the interest of a weaker people to be dominated by a stronger or even encounter a super power. Zees never tell the colonized what's being done is good for them.

 

But he wasn't delving into interesting philosophical debates, he was analysing the message; "Shari", he says to me, looking into my eyes, "perceive this, the TSF Gautier disappeared about eighty Earth Standard years ago. It was presumed destroyed."

 

"Ahhh." I go, checking why he sees the message as important. He gives further details.

 

"The Gautier had been traversing the Fifth Sector, a quadrant not frequently travelled. The next Terran disappearances were thirty years ago, Earth Standard. Investigations commenced, were fruitless. In 2481, the TSF Qintellum's disappearance proved such caused by the rapid traverse of matter, assumed non-natural; ergo an alien species."

 

"Qints..." I muttered, he went on.

 

"The Applewhyte was investigating that corridor which terminated in it's disappearance."

 

I sat on the table, facing him, considering, and he gave me a couple of seconds to catch on. I spoke my thoughts; "So you mean say...the 'destroyed' TSF ships, was more a sucking in then attack."

 

He nodded, leaning back in his chair, sort of sage.

 

"Precisely," he gives in his perfect diction, "construction of the VX series commenced to perceive...."

 

Suddenly it felt a knife in my brain, I felt myself throwing up my guts, Then it all went black.  

 

Whenever I woke up, I was on a bunk, and he was wiping my face with a cloth.

 

"I thought you...remembered..." he said so sadly.

 

He gives me water to drink, then helps me to the sani, then back to bed.  He is really upset, gesturing not knowing what to say; "If I knew...I..."

 

Softly, because I didn't have the energy; "I don't know what I remember or not. Over by the Odin I was giving orders in Shaz like it was my first language."

 

I took a reach, he got another glass of water into my hand. I drank it feeling like a wrung out rag. My voice was so thin it didn't even sound like it was me talking.

 

" I was okay on Beta Mar at first. Then one thing after another, and I was having reactions, two, three times a day...."

 

"Shari, I don't know what to do. If I should persist in discourse, or hold silent. If I should exclude you...do you understand?"

 

"Yeah, it's not my concern, right?"

 

He looked away sort of suffering like. Cause he wants to do the 'Right Thing' but he doesn't know what that is. I took his hand, pulled him to lay beside me.

 

"Tell me enough..." I say.

 

"Enough for what?" he replies.

 

"I don't know, just talk...".

 

He took a breath; "What I need to impart was that the Terrans postulated if they gained velocity beyond light the entity could be perceived. The attempt failed; save able to return."

 

I nod, I get it.

 

I know these ships fly faster than light. I get there was a flyer to go that much faster. But still not fast enough. He kept studying me as if there was more to the conversation, then dodged, went in another direction.

 

"Apparently, the Applewhyte within transmission distance sent the message to the SMC. This Ship is the SMC."

 

"What?" I ask.

 

"The Supreme Military Command." He supplied.

 

"What? This ship?"

 

"Yes."

 

Everyone knew what the SMC was. All civ authority was subservient to it. They didn't tell the people that their elections and rights and all that stuff was no more than Student Government. They let people believe they didn't live under a military dictatorship.

 

Humans did not admit, (or maybe weren't allowed to admit) that there was no democracy or freedom in the megasense.

 

As if it is not big deal he says; "The Supreme Military Command is actually The Supreme Military Computer."

 

A computer had the last say. It figures.

 

"The SCM had diverse locations; Earth, Lunar Base, Mars; it was the most important Terran objective in the galaxy. Inadvertently, I learned the SMC would be transferred from Lunar 2 Base to the Parkinson."

 

"They always transfer it around, you mean?" I say.

 

"Yes. That was considered the wisest policy. Had I never needed to...." He paused, making me know I was involved, but not needing to tell me how or why, he skipped that chapter; "...I learned control being passed from Lunar 2 to the Parkinson."

 

He made like this pause to kind to check that I was okay, wasn't going to have another puke and faint episode, so went on.

 

"During Earth's Inclusion in the ZerShaz Empire all ships orbiting Earth were saturated with radiation to prevent this ship being destructed or control passed to Earth itself."

 

"It wouldn't do them much good on Earth." I reasoned as the weapon humans fired ionised the atmosphere and prevented communications. Everybody, even me knew that. And then I realised why he'd of ordered the ships radiated; he'd kill everybody, but destroy nothing.

 

Posting Zees here, meant; "You were waiting for messages!"

 

He made that one tiny movement of his head that passed for a nod; "I was aware ships which departed Terra ante our Inclusion would contact the SMC. I am not surprised by the existence of the Applewhyte nor other ships, for many Terran ships are in the galaxy, some, destroyed, others, as this--fly free."

 

The big point of it all suddenly entered my mind; "So there's a TSF ship that's missed the past twelve years of history and is coming 'home' thinking there's a home to come to--reporting the Breach of an Order--like there's a TSF going to charge the Gautier with some kind of crime."

 

"Precisely."

 

"This is kind of interesting." I gave.

 

"It is more than that, Shari, it accords a quandary." He took a breath, pondered; "Do I ignore the breach, it's ramifications and have the Applewhyte accosted and captured, or do I..."

 

"Play out the hand."

 

He lifts a brow.

 

"Do it." I say. "Let's behave as if..."

 

"It is not a conjecture. We do have the authority, and it is a decision that will have historical impact. It is an adventure in itself."

 

Yeah, it would be an adventure.

 

Out there, somewhere, was a species no one had ever seen, so primitive humans seemed like great space invaders. There were human survivors or their descendents, from like eighty years ago, plus a ship of twelve years gone which didn't know Jack.

 

I wonder how that would work? How we'd make those on the Apple think they were chatting to the SMC when they were chatting to the ZCF--that was something.  And I'd like to see what happened in the Contravention of Protocol One. I'd like to know what we would do about it.

 

Very softly he said: "I have recalled the iSaz on Shalimar."

 

He'd spoken so low and flat I thought it had to do with the Applewhyte or the breach of the Order. It didn't. I couldn't look at him, didn't know what to say.

 

Okay. This is it. This is the biggest it from the beginning of our relationship.

 

For over a year I'd avoided the chards of memory, afraid of a reaction, but also afraid of finding out who I was. I don't remember much of my past but know no one gets to be as hard and evil as I am without some really bad antecedents. I don't remember those antecedents and don't want to.

 

I'm lying on the bed, he's looking into my face.

 

"I thought....I knew." His words stop my heart. I raise my eyes to his. Maybe afraid, a little surprised, maybe teased. I look into his face, his alien face, beautiful beyond the telling. Falling, into his cat's eyes, his golden eyes...

 

"You have often averred that when we have closeness you become me. Did you think it singular to yourself?"

 

When we make love, I am him. I can touch the very thoughts in his head, be him making love to me, making love to him. Why hadn't I checked he'd be me during that time?

 

Very softly he continues: "I thought you gained more than...but perhaps, you do not comprehend significance..." He says.

 

I had no idea what he had just said. Guess he checked it.

 

"Were I to vision..." he reached and lit a cigarette, and passed it to me..."a smoker it would connect to an aspect of you..."

 

I took a drag and was checking like symbolism which I guess was the answer. Cause we would read them different, And he would think....

 

"You have oft spoken of 'who you were when you were who you were' ante the psi-probing; connoting your existence ere our meeting. In those words, who I am with you now, is who I was, when I was who I was." His voice trails into whisper.

 

I look into his eyes, tasting memories that didn't belong to me; of a life perverted by twenty eight years of human hatred and exclusion.  It's a very heavy minute, and I don't need to know, to remember I just need to be. He embraces me, so gently. I hold him to me. He is all there is, all that matters.

 

"I love you, Daktoy."

 

"Of that I am assured, Shari."

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Imprint

Publisher: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Publication Date: 01-25-2022
ISBN: 978-3-7554-0622-8

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